


The Dollmaker's Labyrinth

by infinitesnow



Category: Lupin III
Genre: Action/Adventure, Caper Fic, Gen, Identity Issues, Mystery, criminals bitching at each other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:13:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infinitesnow/pseuds/infinitesnow
Summary: When a peculiar trinket leads Lupin and his crew into the clutches of a reclusive dollmaker, the gang is forced to survive with little else but their wits.
Relationships: Arsène Lupin III/Original Character(s), Ishikawa Goemon XIII/Jigen Daisuke/Arsène Lupin III/Mine Fujiko/Zenigata Kouichi
Comments: 12
Kudos: 30





	1. Roped Along

BOSTON, 1981

* * *

Forever Yours Consignment Shop had a strange way of organizing their stock.

Not that the displays were unruly or the shelves were on the ceiling - but it seemed odd for a secondhand store to label all of its clothes with such specific measurements. Racks for small, medium, and large, sure, but then smaller, brightly color coded labels dividing clothes all the way down. Some sections only had one or two garments apiece; it was certainly extraneous, if nothing else.

The cashier, Dandy noticed, was glancing in her direction intermittently as she strolled down each aisle, parsing through the sweaters. It was entirely empty save for the two of them, and there probably wasn’t much left to look at that she hadn’t already seen. After a shift running this late, just about anything could become interesting - even someone skimming through the meticulously separated jackets and parkas, examining a plaid woolen overcoat.

She slipped off her own thin jacket and walked herself to the mirror beside the dressing room, buttoning up the overcoat begrudgingly. The disdain on the young woman’s face was unmistakable as she saw her own reflection - dark eyes, wiry brows, thick, dark hair - but she couldn’t help but turn herself around, admiring the fit of the coat. In any case, it was warmer than what she’d walked in wearing, and Boston was only getting colder.

“Do you have a pair of scissors?” She asked the cashier, bringing the coat to the countertop. “I think I’m gonna wear this out.”

“It’s _so_ cute on you,” the cashier said, taking the coat and snipping the little yellow tag off. “I would have grabbed it, but it’s too small for me.”

“Oh, uh...thanks.” Dandy looked away, as if the compliment was something she could avoid seeing. As the cashier rang her up, she slipped something onto the coat’s lapel; a pink cameo pin, carved with the silhouette of a girl in what looked to be the earliest stages of adolescence.

“It looks a little like you, doesn’t it?” Asked the cashier, pressing it in securely. Dandy might have disagreed - the hair was too neat, too short, the face preserved with the gentle confidence of someone who had been born pretty and bright and loved - but it would be rude to demean a gift, even if it had come with hollow praise. Instead, she pushed a couple of twenty dollar bills across the counter, quietly pulling the coat back over her shoulders and grabbing the bag with her old jacket inside.

Stepping out of the thrift shop, she could feel the difference almost immediately: snow had begun to gently drift along the streets, catching the glow of the streetlamps like little shards of diamond, but she felt more snug than she had all day, when the sun had been shining and the air had been clear. Briskly, she set off towards the bus stop at the opposite end of the block, the heels of her boots clacking loudly through the relative silence hanging over the sidewalk, underscored by the echoes of traffic from around the city - but before she had made it even halfway down, she heard at least a dozen sirens, all barreling angrily through rush hour. The parade of red and blue lights illuminated the brick and steel before they had even passed her; she reached the street corner just as an armored van swerved between backed-up cars, miraculously without dinging a single bumper. Curious, she watched the motorcade continue east until taking a sharp right, but turned in the opposite direction, a few steps over to the bus stop.

It was still somewhat early enough for there to be a few people lining the benches, huddled under the glass while waiting for the bus to arrive. She didn’t join them - they were all strangers, but wound up on the same line often enough at this time of night to be vaguely familiar with one another - but noticed, behind the bus stop, a large pile of cast-off blankets and quilts, curled up on the ground beside a paper bag and a cardboard sign reading, in large block letters, “ANYTHING WILL HELP”: below it, “GOD BLESS.”

She sighed. “Oh, God - you still don’t have a coat?”

The faceless mass of ratty old quilts hesitated, but slowly shook its downcast head, shivering piteously.

“What about the shelter? Donations, or...?”

Again, he wordlessly shook his head. Dandy looked up and down the street, wondering if a good samaritan would miraculously appear - but miracles were never about convenience, she supposed. “Look, I, uh...I can keep asking around at the library for you. I don’t...well, nobody’s got anything yet, but someone’s gotta know about an opening sooner or later.”

He still didn’t respond; perhaps the cold had snapped his jaw so tight that it couldn’t even chatter, or perhaps her attempt at lending a hand was too weak to really dignify a response. Dejected, she set her bag down and sat against the wall beside him, watching the foot traffic indifferently pass them by.

“Um...are you, um...are you sure I can’t let you stay with me for a night? Or buy you a hotel room, or something - I just really don’t want to let you freeze out here.”

A head _popped_ out of the mess of quilts like a sock monkey springing from a jack in the box - decidedly not the homeless man she believed she had been talking to, but someone else, with a clean-shaven face and a filthy glint in his eyes. “Well, hey, if you’re offering... ”

She shrieked - her leg instinctively snapped out, the heel of her boot striking him right in the chest.

“Ow!” A hand immediately emerged from the heap to massage where his bruised torso should be. “Could’ve just said no,” he grumbled, getting to his feet. Under the cocoon of blankets, he was remarkably well dressed, if not a little thin for the weather: black dress shirt and trousers, accented by a yellow tie which only made his lanky frame look lankier. He stood the way he smiled: wry and off-balance.

“What did you - where’s the-the...the guy! Where’s the guy?!” Dandy stammered, still staring incredulously at the pile of laundry he had left behind. A few of the people mulling about at the bus stop glanced back at the commotion, but didn’t pay them any considerable mind: arguments breaking out between strangers on the street was pretty typical for Boston.

“What, the hobo? I just threw him my jacket and a couple hundred bucks and told him to run.” The man grinned, offering her a hand - but she leapt to her feet, the confusion in her eyes flaring into anger.

“Run from what?” She demanded. “From those cops?”

“Don’t worry, they’re not gonna arrest him. He’s not who they’re looking for.” With a blithe wave of his hand, he turned to go, but he had barely taken a step before Dandy cut him off.

“And you are?”

He shrugged, the smile still wide across his face. “Guilty as charged.”

Unfazed by his carefree attitude - incensed by it, in fact - she rounded on him indignantly. “So you bribed a homeless man to risk getting arrested? You know a hundred dollars doesn’t even get close to covering bail around here, right?”

“Woah, woah, you’ve got it all wrong.” At last the smile slipped away, his hands waving her down defensively. “Trust me, that motorcade’s gonna keep right on going once they’ve figured out he’s not their guy.”

“And how do you know that?”

The man scoffed. “‘Cause that’s how it works. I’ve done this kind of thing enough times to be sure.”

“What exactly did you _do_ to get that many cops on your tail, anyways?” Her arms folded expectantly, her eyes narrowing.

“This and that. Not to brag, but I’m what you’d call ‘prolific in my field’,” he bragged, chin proudly turned upwards.

“Not to disappoint you, but you’re closer to what I’d call ‘an asshole.’”

“Don’t be so cold. I’m practically an international menace.”

“I don’t think that makes much of a difference.”

“Oh, come on!” Finally, he had become exasperated with her, his brows furrowed devilishly. “I’m Lupin the Third! World’s greatest thief, master of disguise, lover of beautiful women! Of _course_ I know he’s not gonna get pulled in, ‘cause he’s not the genuine article!”

Something he had said seemed to tweak a nerve - the young woman’s jaw visibly clenched. “Well, I’ve never heard of you, and I’m not very impressed. Good luck not getting arrested.”

“Oh, yeah?” He shouted after her as she turned on her heel to go, the bus slowly pulling up to the stop. “And who are you, anyways?”

But she never had the opportunity to answer who she was, anyways, because something _snapped_ the two of them together from behind, ensnaring them by the torso; she managed to stay on her feet with the full weight of him against her back for all of two seconds before toppling onto the pavement chest-first, his chin _knocking_ the top of her skull.

“Wha - _hey!_ Get off!” She kicked her legs fruitlessly under him, arms pinned to their sides by what felt like very thick rope.

“Hey, I’m not tied to you, you’re tied to me! Quit squirming around!”

They could feel the stampede of boots jogging up to them before they heard it; the street rumbled under their footfalls. At the forefront was what could only be described as the world’s giddiest law enforcement officer; a tall, ruddy-faced man, with eyes alight like those of a child tearing open a large, bike-shaped birthday present. He was practically giggling as the full weight of a squadron pinned them to the concrete, though there had hardly been any chance of them getting up and walking away in the first place.

“Oh, hey, Pops.” Lupin greeted him weakly, his lungs crunched between Dandy’s spine and a couple dozen bodies. “Got here quicker than I expected.”

“Really bribed the homeless guy, huh, Lupin? I thought I’d keep an eye on that spot, but I didn’t think you’d actually pull something so lazy,” Inspector Zenigata gloated. 

“ _Lazy_ , huh? You don’t say.” Dandy grumbled, her cheek pressed against the ground.

The inspector had been too occupied with Lupin to notice her until she spoke up from under the mass of men - he seemed surprised that she was there at all. “Who’s this? New girlfriend already?”

“ _Girlfriend?!_ ” They shouted it at the same time, yet somehow both looked offended by the other’s indignation.

He squatted down, perusing her face for something she didn’t know whether or not he’d find, and then - in a moment Dandy would still look back on as being one of the oddest of the night, even with context - pinched both of her cheeks with his fingers, giving them a curious _tug_ . “ _Ow!_ ”

“Hmm.” Zenigata let them snap back into place, rising to his feet. “Sorry about that, ma’am. Just had to check.”

The bus pulled away from the stop, faces watching pressed against the window. Dandy whimpered - there wouldn’t be another bus on this route for another forty-five minutes, and it was not a short ride home. “Sir, I - _urgh_ \- I know you’re very busy, I don’t want to waste your time, but I can probably still catch that bus if I get a running start now.”

“Yeah, c’mon, Pops! Let the lady head home for the night?” Lupin piped up from her back.

A thick, black brow raised dryly. “Much as I’d like to, if I so much as breathe on those ropes you’re liable to escape. We’ll figure it out on the way to the airport.”

“Airport?!” Dandy cried - but the riot police were already hauling them into the back of the armored van, the squad cars blocking traffic altogether to flank it on all sides. Behind her, she could hear Lupin grousing. “Serves you right,” he muttered. “It’s your fault we’re here in the first place.”

“My fault? You heard the guy - you’re the one who got caught pulling a cheap trick.”

“Hey, I usually think outside the box. Going back to basics keeps Pops on his toes, it’s good for him.”

“Yeah, you tell yourself whatever you need to, Lupin.” Zenigata followed them into the van and slammed the doors shut, pounding on the ceiling before taking the bench across from the two. It was an embarrassing sight - Lupin’s legs splayed out over the floor of the van as Dandy dug her heels under her knees, trying not to fall off the edge of their seat - and Zenigata could hardly be blamed for being incapable of holding back a belly laugh as the van began to move.

Lupin rolled his eyes, slumping over miserably; Dandy struggled to stay upright under his dead weight. “Well, I’d be practically home free by now if I hadn’t asked the hobo with a crazy best friend.”

“Oh, for god’s sake...” She moaned, finally managing to straighten her back. Lupin’s head hit the wall of the van with an audible _thunk_ . “I don’t even know him that well; we just talked every now and then once he started hanging around that bus stop. He’s had a really rough year - so I _thought_ I’d try to do something _nice_ since the weather’s getting worse.”

“Give yourself a little more credit, ma’am, you performed a public service.” Zenigata grinned at Lupin, so proudly rubbing it in his face that Dandy almost wished she could turn her head around and join in - it’d put her in a better mood, if nothing else. “If it makes you feel any better, we didn’t feel it necessary to arrest him.”

“Well, thank you. I’m glad _someone_ knows how to treat people fairly.”

There was a huff from behind Dandy. “So he’s out of jail and a couple hundred dollars richer. I thought you were trying to help him find a job.”

“Yeah, a _job_. Unless you were planning on having him run around with your jacket all winter.”

“Maybe so. You’d be surprised how fast that guy could move in the cold.”

“How about that? Fast enough to buy you extra time, and yet you still got caught,” said Zenigata. “Unfortunately, we probably shouldn’t cut those ropes until he’s bolted into his seat on the plane. We’ll have someone drive you home.”

Slyly, Lupin’s shoulders shimmied, his chin coming to rest on Dandy’s shoulder. “Aww, what a shame. Guess we gotta get comfortable after all.”

The motorcade had completely disrupted the flow of rush hour traffic in the thick of the city, but found more mobility once it reached the Boston Big Dig - the highway flowing beneath the city.

At the center was the armored van, which _lurched_ violently as though there was a struggle taking place inside - but a few cars behind was a tan 1977 Volvo, angrily swerving into every remotely car-sized space on the road it could fit in to catch up.

“ _Ow!_ ” Lupin’s legs fruitlessly kicked against Dandy’s heels, which were dead set on planting themselves in his kneecaps; his face was now crushed against the floor of the van. “Hey, Zenigata, you wanna - ow, ow, _ow_ \- gimme a little help here or something? You gotta - hey, _stop_ \- get me back in one piece, don’tcha?”

“Don’t look at me,” the inspector choked out between peals of laughter. “You charmed your way into this one, you charm your way out.”

“ _I swear to God, I’m gonna beat you to death!_ ”

Zenigata began laughing so hard he needed to gasp for air, bent over in his seat as Lupin finally managed to sit the two of them upright against the doors of the van. Amidst the sounds of traffic rumbling outside, they could hear the echoing screech of skidding tires reverberating across the tunnel. “Alright, alright, sheesh! Who put you in such a terrible mood, anyways?”

“Are you _kidding me_ \- ?”

 _Crunch_ \- everyone in the van froze as they heard the sound of metal hitting a guardrail, the motorcade grinding to a halt. Zenigata jumped to his feet, crossing the back of the van to the mesh between them and the driver’s side.

“What was that?” He demanded.

A few cops had already left their vehicles, creeping around the van; their hands hung beside their belts, flirting with their firearms. “One of the squad cars, Inspector,” said the driver. “Someone rammed it into the wall.”

“Roll down your window!”

As the driver cranked the lever, Zenigata pressed his face against the mesh, shouting at the cops still sitting in their squad cars.

“Hold down the line up there!” He gestured wildly, yelling as loud as he could. “Don’t let anyone pass you until we’re all clear!” A few of the drivers gave him a thumbs up, glancing back through their rearview windows.

Lupin, meanwhile, was pushing himself into a standing position by his legs, his back scooting upwards against the door. It was no easy feat - Dandy was dragging her heels, petulantly forcing him to drag her weight up as well as his own- but he finally managed to get to his feet, watching Zenigata to see if he’d noticed. Zenigata’s gaze, however, was fixed on the driver’s side mirror, watching the cops ducking behind the parked squad cars.

Without warning, something from behind circled the van, the wild _scream_ of its revving tires drowning out the sound of police gunfire, looping it twice - and as it made its way around a third time, three things happened in rapid succession.

A bullet broke through the handles of the van’s back door with a sharp _pop_ , traveling all the way to the ceiling just above Zenigata’s head.

Dandy’s legs nearly buckled under the two of them as Lupin leaned forward and knocked the doors open with one swift kick.

And with only so much as a “Catch ya later, Pops,” Lupin leapt backwards out of the van, Dandy falling right along with him.


	2. Race Against Crime

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Got this wrapped up earlier than I expected, so I'm dropping it here before I turn back to the last stretch of my schoolwork.
> 
> This chapter does come with a content warning for strangulation, so please read with caution if necessary.

Expectations, even when all preceding events have subverted them, are peculiarly persuasive concepts.

Maybe Dandy had expected them to roll over the hood of a parked car. Maybe she had expected them to fall - _smack_ \- onto the pavement, wriggling helplessly like a turtle on its back.

But landing squarely on the passenger seat of a motorcycle, their legs dangling over the back wheel as it set off into the tunnel, had not been on her list, and she was beginning to wonder if confusion was eventually going to give way to something resembling resigned ambivalence.

The answer was probably no, she figured, but she was the kind of idiot who held out hope like that.

What Dandy couldn’t see - and what Lupin barely could, out of the corner of his eye - was a scruffy looking man in a black winter coat, his left hand locked onto the fedora atop his head while his right deftly steered.

“Well, it’s about time!” Lupin cheerfully shouted over the roaring echo of the tunnel. “What in the hell took you so long, Jigen?”

“Hey, I’m not the one who got arrested for flirting on the job,” grumbled Jigen. 

“Not flirting!” Dandy added helpfully from the back.

Lupin groaned as Jigen steered them between the narrow strip of road between lanes, wobbling between the rows of backed up traffic. “Oh, give me a little more credit. I go for women with charm.”

“Okay, pal, you - ” A truck pulling into the far left lane nearly pinned them against another car’s door, interrupting Jigen mid-sentence. “ - you just keep telling yourself that next time you’re slobbering over Fujiko!”

“Yeah, yeah. You still got the loot, right?”

“Sure, I got it. Don’t know what you need _another_ Imperial egg for, though. Swear we’ve grabbed at least five of those things.” He huffed.

The cocoon of ropes didn’t permit Lupin’s shoulders to shrug as expressively as he would like - but he was certainly trying. “C’mon, Jigen, you know it’s not about the hard, chocolate outside. It’s the sweet, creamy center that makes it a real treasure.”

“You can use whatever metaphor you want, but that still leaves us with too much damn chocolate.”

“ _LUPIN!_ ” An enraged howl cut through the cacophony of police sirens blaring through the tunnel. _“Get back here!_ ” Zenigata had been quick to mobilize the squad cars to turn back and stay on their tail, it seemed - he was leading the charge, his torso hanging out of the passenger side window. 

“Damn,” said Lupin, almost sounding impressed. “He really doesn’t skip a beat, does he?”

“He’s driving into oncoming traffic!” Dandy shouted, watching the cars fruitlessly trying to part for the oncoming motorcade.

“I know! Crazy, right?” From the way he said it, it was more “I opened a bag of M&M’s and they were all orange” crazy, and less “There’s an 80% chance we’re about to witness a catastrophic pile up” crazy. “Some days, I really worry I’m gonna wind up watching this old man die.”

“Would you worry less about Pops right now and more about getting those ropes off?” Jigen elbowed Lupin, who promptly got to wiggling his shoulders back and forth. Dandy, just as eager to be untethered, was pushing her wrists up, trying to hoist the cocoon off of them: neither could make much headway, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Meanwhile, Zenigata had climbed out onto the hood of the police car, brandishing a makeshift lasso with a pair of handcuffs tied to the end. His eyes were practically burning a hole through Dandy straight into Lupin, following them unwaveringly as they wove between cars. “Jigen, you stop that bike or I’m getting you both on a kidnapping charge!”

“C’mon, you can’t blame us for that!” Lupin whined playfully. “You’re the one who tied us together, not me.”

“Well, no one told you to jump out of the van,” snarked Dandy.

“No one told _you_ to - ” A loud _clink_ cut him off, however, as the cuff locked itself over the topmost rope, and Zenigata gleefully began to reel them in. The bike was valiantly pulling against Zenigata’s grip, like an overzealous dog, but the inspector was surprisingly strong: Dandy remembered burning her hands on the climbing rope in high school gym class as clearly as if it had been the day before, and she couldn’t imagine trying to play tug of war with a Harley, let alone _winning_.

Lupin kicked the side of the bike, which lurched back towards the police car. “Can’t this thing go any faster?”

“It’s not going fast that’s the problem!” But Jigen kept pumping the gas anyways, the motorcycle angrily revving as it fought to go in the direction he bade it to.

Zenigata lost his hold on the rope, and the bike leapt forwards without warning - _BANG_ \- they couldn’t turn fast enough to miss the front end of a large truck and _slammed_ into its side, losing their balance - and the thick mess of ropes gave out; Dandy slipped down, her neck _catching_ the rope and pulling Lupin precariously close to the edge of his seat, grasping with the hands still pinned to his side at the hem of Jigen’s coat.

Jigen struggled to keep the bike upright with the weight of two people pulling him down. “What’re you doing back there?”

What Lupin was doing back there was quite a lot: he was fighting to un-pin his wrists from his sides, to no avail (if anything, they were now _more_ pinned, and he could feel his nerves prickling); he was desperately clinging to Jigen so as not to fall off the bike; and he was commandeering his legs in an attempt to keep Dandy upright, trying to use his knees pull her back up. Her heels slipped on and off of the police car’s bumper - her eyes were wide and watery as she gasped for air, staring up at Lupin with the desperation of someone who is only occupied with the thought _please, God, don’t let me die_.

It’d take a cold person to see that look and think nothing of it: Lupin and Jigen had both met more than their share. But it was no less jarring to be caught up in the thrill of the chase one moment and fighting for someone’s life the next, especially when that someone had previously made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with him - and was now realizing, at the worst possible time, that he was the only person who could keep her alive.

In some way, that almost made it harder to watch.

Zenigata, to his credit, very quickly switched gears. “Don’t slow down!” He shouted back to the driver, fruitlessly attempting to wedge his hand between the rope and her neck. “Can’t you move your hands or something?” He asked Lupin.

“You think I’d still be wrapped up in this thing if I could?” Lupin retorted.

Grimacing, Zenigata crawled back across the hood of the police car, plunging his hand through the open passenger window and rifling around inside.

“Hurry!” Dandy had no energy left to struggle, her body threatening to go limp. At last, Zenigata found something: a large bowie knife with a black handle, extremely threatening but good enough for the moment. He lunged back across the hood, seizing the cocoon and sawing away at his handiwork.

The topmost ropes split apart with a SNAP, and Lupin dragged his wrists along his torso to grab onto her shoulders - Zenigata kept digging the knife into the layers of twine, struggling to maintain his balance as he dangled between the hood of the car and the back of the bike - and finally the coils _sprang_ , cast off onto the road as Dandy desperately heaved for air, promptly passing out from the shock. The three split apart: Zenigata on his car, almost slipping and rolling off into the path of his own hood, and Lupin, hoisting Dandy up onto his lap as they drifted away from the bumper.

“Jigen, wait, pull up to the side!”

“What?”

“I’m throwing her back to the cops!” He tucked his arm under her knees as Jigen slowed the motorcycle down, coasting beside Zenigata. “Hey, Pops! Think you can take her from here?”

“Lupin, what are you doing?” He roared. “Stop the bike!”

“We’re kind of in a rush, so she’s better off at your place for the night!” Lupin giggled, preparing to swing her across. “Get ready to catch!”

“Don’t even try it!”

“One... _two…_ ”

“Lupin, _pull that bike over or I’ll -_ ”

 _THUNK_. They heard the sound of two cars violently colliding before they saw it - a tan Volvo, ramming the trunk of Zenigata’s vehicle and forcing itself between the bike and the police car. Screaming, Zenigata gripped the hood like a vise as he spun out, the car behind him just narrowly avoiding crashing into the driver’s side.

Lupin sat Dandy’s body in front of him, watching the crash with the fear that he had jinxed Zenigata’s chances of survival, but he had little time to dwell on it: the Volvo was coming for them next, menacingly rear-ending the back of the bike as it threatened to match their speed and then some.

“ _Jigen!_ ”

“I got it!” The wheels of the motorcycle ground into the road as Jigen spurred it onwards, clearing the last stretch of tunnel, crossing the traffic congested at its mouth, and - “Hang on!” he shouted, and Lupin tightened his grip around Dandy before realizing that Dandy was unsecured to the bike, as well as still very unconscious - jumping them over the guardrail into the proper lane, speeding off back towards the city and onto the highway.

As they swerved amongst the flow of traffic with ease, Lupin couldn’t help but stare at the Volvo, which was now firmly crammed behind miles of backed up cars.

“ _Phew_.” He smiled, though he realized now that they were in the open air, his lack of a proper coat might come back to bite him in the ass. “Alright, then, what do we do with her?”

“Yeah, that may be a bit of a problem.”

“Huh? Why?”

Jigen nodded towards the tunnel they’d just left behind. “That car that just smashed into Zenigata? He was tailing your van.”

“What?”

“I’m serious. We were practically neck and neck at one point - he tried to pass me and wound up knocking one of those squad cars into a wall.”

“So _that’s_ what that noise was.” Said Lupin, slowly piecing things together. “But we got the egg without anyone chasing us besides Pops - at least, I thought so.”

“Me too, but he was definitely on you by the time I caught up.”

“Wait...you don’t think - ?”

Jigen turned onto an exit, into the dim glow of the suburbs. “I don’t know. Anything weird about her?”

“Annoying, sure. Weird, not particularly.” Lupin peeked over her shoulder, relieved that she was still passed out while he complained. “Guess we can’t really leave her somewhere now, can we?”

“I don’t think we could stop if we wanted to,” sighed Jigen. “Whether it’s Pops or those other guys, we’re gonna be looking over our shoulders for a few hours.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Lupin groaned, resting his chin atop her downcast head. It was gonna be a long ride out - he was just glad nobody was going for his kneecaps for a little while.

They drove west for what felt like hours, the city fading into suburbs and the suburbs bleeding out into long stretches of barren farmland; narrow roads and sprawling fields, trees hundreds of feet away starkly silhouetted against the night sky. The winter air pierced their faces as they sped down into the valley, and at some point Lupin realized he was subconsciously holding Dandy closer to pilfer some of the warmth from her coat, his other arm wrapped around Jigen’s torso. 

“See anyone back there?” Asked Jigen.

Lupin glanced backwards at the road behind them - there hadn’t been any sign of headlights for a few miles. “N-nope.”

“Hm.” Jigen pulled onto a dead-end street, speeding past the weathered colonial houses littered behind the trees. At the end of the road was a beat-up little mobile home, so low it looked as though it was sinking into the ground - beside it, a blue Cadillac, headlights on, steam drifting into the night sky out of the exhaust pipe. Sitting atop the car was a shadow of a man, hands folded in his lap in quiet contemplation.

“Goemon!” The bike drifted to a stop by the front door; they jumped off so quickly that they nearly knocked it on its side, Lupin hoisting Dandy over his shoulder.

He didn’t respond, but wordlessly slid off the roof and into the passenger seat, much to Lupin’s dismay. “Oh, c’mon, Goemon, let me sit up front! She’s gonna beat the crap out of me once she wakes up.”

Goemon didn’t flinch, irritably regarding Lupin out of the corner of his eye. “Your shortcomings in dealing with women are not my burden to bear.”

“Jigen! Jigen, listen, how about I drive? I mean, hey, y-your hands must be pretty numb, right? ”

“Just shut up and get in the car, Lupin!” Jigen shouted, buckling himself into the driver’s seat. Grumbling under his breath, Lupin loaded Dandy into the passenger seat - her head _bumped_ against the door frame, and he couldn’t help but grin - and scooted in beside her, leaning her against the opposite window. With a screech, the car peeled out of the driveway, heading back up the street.

Lupin squinted into the darkness ahead, his gears turning. “Hey, Jigen, turn in here,” he whispered. Jigen got the hint: he stopped, backed into the nearest driveway, and turned off the car. For a moment, everything was dead silent - Jigen and Goemon ducked down in their seats, Lupin rolling onto the back floor.

He only remembered to pull Dandy out of sight _after_ another car passed them, making a beeline for the discarded motorcycle.

“How the hell’d they catch up to us so fast?” Jigen hissed from the front.

“Catch up? How’d they even make it out of Boston without getting arrested for totaling Pops’ car?”

“Must’ve ditched their own car and grabbed another one - but if that’s the case, these guys are crazier than we thought.”

Their windows were thin enough, the noises of the neighborhood so soundly asleep that they could hear the car doors quietly _click_ shut - the rustling of grass, as if something had startled a nearby deer - and then footsteps, _creaking_ up the stairs to the front door.

“You see anything?”

“Not yet,” Goemon muttered, but as soon as he did there was a _hiss_ , and the sound of the door being forced open. “Hmm. They’ve thrown in some sort of gas bomb.”

“Can you tell how many?”

“Three. Two in the house, one by the door.” And then, after a moment of listening to every room in their house being torn apart - “They’re coming back out with flashlights.”

“Crap,” groaned Jigen, putting out his freshly lit cigarette on the dashboard. “What d’you think? Stay low or pull out now?”

Lupin’s eyes darted up towards Dandy, who was still passed out across the back seat. “Better wait.”

And so they all laid there in the silence, the heat of the car slowly dying down until Lupin was really starting to get the whole picture of why throwing his coat at a homeless person had been such a monumentally stupid decision. He was down a gun and up a passenger who hated his guts, he couldn’t relish in the victory of a well-earned treasure and another wild escape from Zenigata, and his arms felt as though they would soon be so brittle that the men outside would be able to snap them off with very little trouble. Occasionally they could see a beam of light sweep through the trees, reflecting off their windows - and it was so quiet that he could hear Goemon’s grip ever-so-softly tighten around his scabbard - but eventually, the car doors slammed, the engine revved to a start, and they slowly pulled out of the driveway, taking their time to reach the end of the street.

A minute passed before Lupin poked his head up from the back seat, peeking around from left to right like a monkey-headed periscope.

“Think we’re clear,” he said, hoisting himself off the floor.

Jigen grunted, unfolding his back from under the driver’s seat. “Damn, those guys were thorough.”

“Not thorough enough. We’re lucky they didn’t search the car,” said Goemon.

“They took out two cop cars and broke into our safe house. I guess going through every parked car in the neighborhood was pushing it.”

Lupin sat Dandy back up, taking advantage of the free space to stretch his legs as Jigen re-started the Cadillac. “That’s probably why they switched,” he said. “Just in case any of the locals spotted them.”

“So they’re crazy _and_ pragmatic. Good to know.” Jigen pulled a fresh cigarette out of the box by his teeth, lighting it with a single sharp _flick_.

“Why were you being followed at all?” Goemon asked. “You made it sound like a straightforward robbery.”

“Oh, it was supposed to be. Why don’t you tell him how you got arrested, Lupin?” It was hard to tell in the dark, but the glow of Jigen’s cigarette faintly illuminated a snicker.

Folding his arms, Lupin sagged back in his seat. “Look, I _thought_ Pops wouldn’t expect me to switch places with a homeless guy - ”

“He didn’t.” Jigen interrupted. “You just got cocky and hung around flirting for too long.”

“Hey, she told you herself, we were _not_ flirting. In fact, we were in the middle of a very heated argument.”

“Well, knowing you, at that point you might as well be flirting.” A cloud of smoke drifted up along the ceiling. “Anyways, Pops got them both in the same trap on accident. Got about halfway to the airport until I picked them up.”

Goemon turned back and looked at Dandy, as if finally acknowledging she was there. “So why did you bring her along?”

“That’s just it. Those guys weren’t tailing me or Jigen before I got arrested.” Lupin stuck his hand under her nose - much to his relief, she was breathing regularly. The last thing they needed was to be carting around a dead body with his fingerprints all over it. “But we tried to pass her off to Pops before we escaped, and they T-boned him.”

“So we wake her up and ask her.” Goemon said, in a very matter-of-fact way.

“Nah, she had a rough ride. Better to let her sleep it off.” Lupin shook his head emphatically. “Besides, I’m the one who’s stuck back here with her, and I’m not in the mood to get kicked anymore tonight.”

“Fine,” said Goemon. “But I _would_ like to know what’s inside that Imperial egg.”

“Same here.” Jigen reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a moderately sized blue egg, decorated with ceramic ribbons and small diamonds at the center of each bow. “Here you go, Lupin - let’s see that ‘cream filled center’ you were talking up.”

Lupin grinned, seizing the egg and opening the clasp with a gentle click, and sighed in relief upon seeing its contents: a small, pristine vial of some strange, oily liquid, cushioned in velvet. “It’s a universal antitoxin,” he explained. “Apparently, good for just about any poison - it’s extremely costly to produce, though, so it’s not easy to come by unless you know where to look. I’m not even sure its previous owners had any idea this was in here.”

“Not bad.” Jigen chuckled, impressed, but Goemon seemed a little less enthusiastic about the evening’s spoils.

“That won’t be necessary,” he said. “I have built up a tolerance to most poisons, so a remedy like that would be wasted on me.”

If the brim of his fedora and the darkness of the countryside weren’t obscuring his eyes, everyone would have seen Jigen roll them. “Well, we’ll just make sure you’re the only one of us who ever gets poisoned.”


	3. Deals on Wheels

“Lights out - lights _out_ , you idiot!”

The Ford Bronco pulled off the road onto the grassy knoll beside the streetlight, the lights dimming with a _click_. Inside, three men watched the dead end street they’d turned off of patiently - and when the blue Cadillac drove past, they crept back up the hill, carefully following their tracks with the lights still down.

“You sure that’s them?”

“Has to be. Every other house was dark. We would’ve noticed if we’d woken anyone up.”

The man in the back seat was slowly dialing numbers into a large cellular phone, groaning anxiously.

“Come on, don’t call him.”

“What do you mean, don’t call him? Get it out of the way now.”

“You’re making a mistake.” But he had already plugged the last digit in, and they waited quietly as the dial tone rang at the pace of a solemn church bell.

Eventually, someone mumbled drowsily on the other side. “ _Yeah?_ ”

“Hey there, sir, we’re, uh...hope we didn’t wake you - ” 

“ _It’s almost eleven o’clock._ ”

“No, sir, I understand - ”

“ _I was told you started at eight thirty._ ”

“We did - ”

“ _Boston traffic is not that bad, guys._ ”

“That’s, uh....that’s not really the problem.”

“ _Problem?_ ” The voice on the other line rose only ever so slightly, but everyone in the car winced. “ _What kind of problem has you out this late at night?_ ”

The man holding the phone looked uncomfortably between the two in the front, silently begging for an intervention which would never come. “It’s, uh…it’s not _necessarily_ a problem, more a logistical question.”

“ _Is it a question or a problem?_ ”

“It’s a....it’s a problem we can handle, but we - ” He hesitated as the men in the front shook their heads angrily. “ - _I_ just wanted to keep you in the loop. In case things get out of hand.”

“Fine. _What is it?_ ”

“Well, she got....she got caught in a police sting before we could get her off the street.”

“ **_What?_ **”

“Yeah, they pulled her in with some other guy. No idea what for.”

“ _So you lost her._ ”

“No, no, we, uh....someone intercepted the vehicle and broke them out. Cops tried to follow, but we caught them in a pile-up with the Volvo.”

“... _And you left the car?_ ”

“Yep. Threw our stuff in a Bronco and tore off the plate.”

“ _You’re following them to their next location?_ ”

“That’s where we’re running into some issues. We followed the bike back to the house, but they must’ve known we were tailing them. They took another ride out.”

“ _And are you following that vehicle now?_ ”

“We’re pretty sure, sir.”

A long, pregnant pause hung over the car. For a moment, it seemed nobody could breathe.

“ _How many others?_ ”

The man in the back took a moment to remember how to speak. “Two that we saw.”

“ _Did they see you?_ ”

“We don’t know.”

A sigh, and then -“ _You stay on that car._ ”

“All right.”

“ _Do not do anything that will draw attention to yourselves._ ”

“All right.”

“ _Keep in mind that you’re already following wanted men. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you do this discreetly._ ”

“Right, we - yeah, we understand.”

“ _Do you?_ ”

Everyone nodded, though only the man in the back replied. “Yep.”

“ _Great. I’m also amending your orders._ ”

“....To?”

“ _You’re taking the whole group._ ”

The car _lurched_ forwards as the driver’s foot slipped and knocked the gas pedal; the man sitting in the passenger seat choked on his own saliva, wheezing and hacking.

“O-okay.”

“ _The two on the bike and anyone else in that car - and you’re bringing them straight back._ ”

“Sure, we can....yeah.”

“ _I appreciate your flexibility. Obviously, it’d be preferable if you could get them off the road as soon as possible._ ”

“No, uh....no problem.” He said, glancing at the man still violently coughing in the passenger seat.

“ _But discreetly._ ”

“Of course. Discreetly.”

“ _And please avoid calling me back until you’re done._ ”

“Gotcha.”

“ _I’m hanging up now. Good night._ ”

“Good - ” _Click_. The dial tone droned coldly on the other end.

Sheepishly, the man in the back seat looked up at the men in the front: he could see the driver’s brow furrowed disapprovingly in the rearview mirror, while the other despondently banged his head against the headrest before turning and glaring at the man in the back.

“He’s in the loop now, huh?”

“Yeah.” Said the man in the back, gently pushing the phone across the seat, away from him. “Yeah. He’s in the loop.”

He felt it before he saw it.

It was one of the odder things about him, the way Lupin slept - something many men and women could attest to, most of all the two in the front of the car. He wasn’t light, per se, but he never seemed to be fully asleep: there was always the sensation that - even if he was dead weight, mouth hanging open, quietly snoring - he was still _thinking_ , simply waiting to be awake again. He seemed to think his sleeping habits were average, but anyone who had been caught alone in a room with him while he was in bed could never shake the feeling that the person under the covers was, and simultaneously was not, Lupin the Third. It was as though his spirit had left his body, but lingered in the room pondering over whatever business he needed to ponder until he was ready to get back on his feet.

So when the gust of cold wind rattled him out of his slumber, and he saw the back door hanging open over the road, and heard the _thud_ of something rolling out of the car, he constructed the picture of what had transpired in the past thirty seconds so quickly that he couldn’t say for sure he hadn’t simply watched it happen. “Goemon! Pull over!”

He pushed the passenger seat in front of him - and Jigen, whose ass hung precariously close to the edge of his seat as he slept, slipped off onto the floor. “What? What happened?”

“She made a break for it!”

“What?” Sure enough, when Jigen looked in his side mirror, he saw her - losing her balance on the steep, snowy hill and sliding into the trees below. “Damn - stop the car!”

Goemon, who had been given the driver’s seat while the others slept, was hunched intently over the steering wheel with his sword at his side, his foot resting so delicately on the gas that the car was barely moving at an acceptable speed. He gently rolled them to a stop on the curb, but Jigen and Lupin had already flung their doors open, stumbling down the hill after her. Jigen made it halfway before he tipped over and fell onto his chest, wading down the rest of the way like a turtle surfing along the tide; Lupin managed to nimbly reach the bottom of the slope, though by the time he was back on even ground, the hems of his pants were damp and his hands were growing numb.

“Wait....hang on! Stop running!” He shouted, as useless as he knew it was to try: but he was already freezing cold, and he didn’t know how fast he was going to be able to keep moving. In fairness, he wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to last, either - but she was maintaining a fairly steady speed, enough to keep him and Jigen on their toes. Jigen took the right, grumbling miserably; there was no sign of Goemon, though Lupin knew that of the three, it would take him the least time to catch up. This was ground long since disturbed, however, and it was a miracle none of them had broken a bone tripping over wayward branches and rocks blanketed by snow - as quickly as they were all managing to move, they could hear one another cursing under their breath as their feet clipped against the undergrowth, knocking them off-kilter.

“Hey! Stop!” Jigen bellowed, apparently also desperate enough to stop running that he’d resort to something they both knew had never, and would never, work. The gun in his holster nearly came out, but was noisily shoved back in, accompanied by even more cursing.

Lupin could hear it distinctly from his left - _snik_ \- the sound of a sword being unsheathed and slicing through the air before being neatly slid back into its sheath. He skidded to a halt, listening carefully: amidst the still of the forest, the crunching of the snow under her feet, he and Jigen panting for air - something large made a heavy creaking noise, and then a menacing groan as a tree, its trunk cleanly cut at the bottom, thundered to the ground, landing a foot away from the woman with an angry CRASH.

“Wow,” said Lupin, impressed by the felled tree in the same way one might be by an above-average car. “Nice work, Goemon.”

“Another worthless object.” Goemon irritably trudged to the others’ side as Dandy turned to face them, clearly stunned by the heavy obstacle dropped in her path.

“Don’t....I have....I have mace,” she said breathlessly, reaching for her pocket - but her hand realized before she did that that statement was not as correct as it might have been the night before. Dandy nervously looked between the three, visibly beginning to understand what a very stupid gamble she’d taken.

“Must’ve left it in your other coat, huh?” Lupin said, a roguish twinkle in his eye. Someone had to look friendly, after all: the early morning jog had clearly put Jigen in a foul mood, and Goemon was no more cheery after needlessly drawing his blade. “Wouldn’t have hit us with this wind, anyways.”

Ragged clouds of steam billowed up from her mouth. “Would’ve been worth a shot.”

Jigen sighed. “Look, you’ve got the wrong idea. You’re not a hostage.”

“So waking up in your car was just some....some happy accident?”

“Hard as it may be to believe, Lupin is not in the habit of frivolously kidnapping random women,” Goemon added. “And even if he were, it would be even less likely for Jigen to enable him.”

“Besides, if you really think about it, you’re probably lucky you ran into us - ”

“ _Lucky?!_ ”

“ - hey, we weren’t _trying_ to bring you along!” Lupin continued over her, folding his arms petulantly. “We would’ve just left you in Boston.”

“And why didn’t you?”

Jigen was growing impatient, glancing towards the car. “Not to rush this along, but if we don’t get back on the road you’re gonna see for yourself real quick.”

“Oh, my god, see _what?_ ” Dandy asked, fear quickly giving way to exasperation.

“Someone is following you.” Goemon’s stern voice firmly put an end to the back and forth. This was not the direction Dandy expected this conversation to take, and for a moment it was apparent the claim had caught her off guard.

“That’s insane.”

“I wouldn’t say insane, but it’s a hell of a coincidence,” said Lupin.

“No, I’m serious. Nobody’s following me.”

“Just means they’re doing a good job,” Jigen said, lighting himself a fresh cigarette.

“You realize....you _realize_ how this sounds, right? With no proof to back this up?”

Lupin rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Well - ”

“Because it all just sounds like something to trick me into getting back in your car.” The fear in Dandy’s eyes had not dissipated, but it was harder to make out under the stark incredulity on her face. “And I’m not....getting into a car with you without a damn good reason.”

“C’mon, that’s a little harsh. We were trying to save your life last night, weren’t we?”

“Maybe _you_ were.” Jigen grunted. “I was just trying to keep my ass on the bike.”

“Whoops! My mistake. It was all me.” Lupin proudly corrected himself, grinning from ear to ear. Jigen scoffed quietly behind him - but Dandy’s gaze softened, scouring Lupin’s face for the trick.

It wasn’t Dandy who replied, however: it was Goemon.

“They’re here.” He stated, head not even turning to confirm what he already knew to be true. Indeed, when Lupin and Jigen wheeled around, looking back at the road, they saw an unfamiliar vehicle parking beside their own, the doors swinging open, and two men stepping out, approaching the Cadillac apprehensively.

Lupin threw his arm out in front of Dandy instinctively, and before she could protest he turned to her, finger raised against his lips before slowly aiming at what he’d seen first -

Guns, so faintly glinting in the dim light of the morning that nobody who hadn’t been looking for them would have noticed until they were too close to turn and run. The men raised them slowly as they crept along the back of the car, aiming them inside, realizing it was empty - and then staring into the forest.

Nothing there. No sign of anyone....except for fresh footprints all the way down the hill.

From behind the trees, weapons at the ready, Lupin and the others could hear two sets of shoes slowly crunching across the snow, following their tracks closer and closer - Dandy felt Lupin’s arm tighten protectively around her chest - Goemon’s hand was affixed to the hilt of his sword, raised level with his steely gaze - and then, just a few steps away from being discovered, something behind them _moved_.

Before Lupin could even turn his head, the Cadillac was tilting, then rolling, then violently careening down the hill, blowing through the snow, and landing - _CRUNCH_ \- on the nearest tree trunk, the hood crumpling like a cardboard box.

Without hesitation, Lupin seized the momentary distraction - he grabbed Dandy’s hand and made a break back towards the road, Jigen and Goemon quickly following his lead. He felt her hand pull away and turned back in a panic, thinking he’d lost her; but she was matching his speed with little trouble, eyes fixed ahead of her with burning determination. Behind them, they could hear heavy footfalls, guns being fired - but none of the bullets hit their mark, instead dancing around their ankles. Jigen fired a few back, but it seemed that what their assailants lacked in 20/20 vision, they made up for in agility: they weaved between the trees so swiftly that there was only a moment’s opening to take aim, and as they began the unforgiving slog back up the thick, white hillside, he found it increasingly difficult to keep his arm steady.

“You didn’t park the car?!” He shouted at Goemon, who was nearly halfway up already.

“You asked me to stop it.” Goemon retorted.

“Yeah, by _putting it in park!_ ”

“Would you two quit whining and keep climbing?” Lupin grunted, clawing his way to the top with Dandy not too far behind him. He jumped the hood of the car waiting expectantly on the curb and threw open the door; the driver, having not anticipated a fight, was clumsily attempting to pull out his own weapon. Grinning, Lupin seized him by the coat and threw him out onto the road, the rest of the gang piling in after him.

It was the last thing the driver and the gunmen saw before the car peeled back onto the highway with a giddy _scream_ , leaving them all in the snow.

“Damn.” Jigen groaned, adjusting the seat so he could properly lean back. “Closer than we thought.”

“Pretty amateurish, too,” Lupin pointed out. “Couldn’t aim to save their lives.”

“Nah, the bullets landed too close. Those were warning shots. Trying to freak us out.”

“Which means they want us alive.” Goemon added.

“Means they want _all_ of us alive.” Lupin extended his hand towards Jigen, who passed him the cigarette dangling off his lips. “Don’t think that was the case last night.”

“But that still doesn’t mean it has anything to do with me.” Dandy leaned forwards into the front, her head poking out between Jigen and Lupin. “Maybe it does now, I guess, but I don’t have anything anyone would want. Not enough for something this crazy.”

“That depends,” said Lupin. “Notice anything unusual lately?”

“Outside of the past twelve hours or so? Nothing off the top of my head.”

“Meet any interesting people?”

“Again, not prior to last night.”

“What about that pin?”

Dandy glanced down at her lapel, remembering the odd gift from the thrift store clerk - the least of the previous evening’s peculiarities. “I guess it came with the coat.”

“Can I see it?” She passed the cameo pin into Lupin’s open palm, leaning back into her seat and watching him observe it through the rearview mirror. He twirled it between his fingers, looking it up and down from every angle. “Hmm....looks a little like you, huh?”

“Not really.”

“I don’t know, I kind of see the resemblance.” Jigen took the pin from Lupin’s hand, raising it towards the brim of his hat to take a closer look.

“It’s a girl with short hair. Anything else is a bit of a stretch.” Dandy rolled her eyes.

“But there’s something about it....I can’t really nail it down.” He trailed off, occupied by his own train of thought. After a minute or so of rolling down the highway in silence - passing exits and rest stops, all nestled amongst bare, frost-covered trees - he piped back up, as though he had never stopped talking in the first place. “What’s your name, anyways?”

“Dandy. Dandy Abernathy.”

“ _Pffft -_ ” Lupin visibly struggled to contain a snicker. “Dandy? Was _Happy_ too on the nose for your parents?”

Jigen was having no better luck. “C’mon, look on the bright side. Could’ve been saddled with something like Merry.”

“Or Dopey, Grumpy, Sneezy - ”

“That is enough.”

Everyone turned towards Goemon, who, despite his interjection, remained motionless.

“You think things must be difficult for her; you haven’t even spared a thought for her sister, Jolly.”

It was too much for Lupin and Jigen, and they broke - even Goemon cracked a smile, proud of his handiwork. Dandy, meanwhile, shouted over their unruly giggles; “Oh, yes, we’re all _very_ funny, gentlemen. Real charming.”

Lupin’s grin was so far past stretching from ear to ear that it was dangerously close to jumping off his face altogether. “I’m sorry! But it’s - c’mon, it is a little funny!”

She groaned, burying her head in her hands. “You _sure_ you can’t just drop me off at a bus station? If you want the pin, you can have the damn pin.”

“Not that I’m personally interested in forcing you to come with us, but speaking from experience, your odds aren’t great on your own.” Jigen said, glancing back at her from his seat (or at least, she assumed - his hat was certainly aimed in her general direction.) “If they’re gonna follow you this far out, they’ll follow you right back.”

“And?” Dandy retorted. “They have witness protection in Boston. Probably the best in the country behind Jersey.”

“They rammed a police car in broad daylight. I’d say you’re lucky if you even make it to the city.”

“Hitching a ride with us for a while wouldn’t be so unbearable, now, would it?” Lupin asked, peeking into the rearview.

“No offense, but I usually handle things myself.” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “It’s just what I’m used to.”

“Nothing quite like this, I’m assuming.”

“No, but I’m still not sure I would be involved at all if _you_ hadn’t gotten me arrested. ”

The quiet snickers were now aimed in his direction, and Lupin dropped the conversation stubbornly, turning his attention to the road ahead. “Geez, Goemon, where’d you drive us out to? I don’t recognize any of this.” 

“What’d that sign say, New London?” Dandy peered out of the window. “Must be near the coast of Connecticut.”

“The coast? That’s perfect!” Lupin grinned. “We can ride the highway straight across to Yale.”

Jigen’s head tilted curiously. “Yale? What the hell’s at Yale?”

For a professional criminal, Lupin’s poker face was wildly inconsistent: sometimes he didn’t give even the slightest inclination that he knew something nobody else did until the last, crucial moment, but other times - especially around his cohorts - he betrayed his own intentions without even meaning to.

“ _Lupin_.” And from the sound of his tone, Jigen knew precisely what that intention was.

“Look, it’s just gonna be a quick stop - ”

“No.”

“I mean, you said it yourself, we really don’t need another Imperial egg - ”

“ _No_.”

Lupin looked over at Jigen, the sheepish smile on his face fruitlessly masking his embarrassment at having been caught in the act. “Ok, so I promised her the egg, but I never promised her the antitoxin. Consider it my service fee!”

“That’s not the point. If you don’t start telling me when a new job is just another errand you’re running for Fujiko, I’m not coming along anymore.”

“Oh, c’mon, Jigen, that’s not fair!” Lupin pouted. “If I told you, you’d never do it!”

“Damn right. You wanna kiss her ass, you do it on your own time.”

“Fujiko?” Dandy quietly asked Goemon, whose face twitched at the mere mention of her name.

“An ill-met colleague. I was under the impression our trip to Boston had nothing to do with her, but apparently my optimism was misplaced.”

“No kidding,” chuckled Jigen. “I was in a better mood running around in the snow.”

“Honestly, you two, can’t a guy do a favor for a lady without getting beat up for it?” The leather upholstery stuntedly _squeaked_ as Lupin sank down in the driver’s seat. “Besides, I have a hunch that Fujiko might have some idea what’s going on here.”

“ _Sure_ you do,” muttered Jigen, folding his arms behind his head - but Lupin looked back at Dandy for approval, and she could see that he, at least, believed it.

“Alright, fine.” She said, though she clearly regretted it the moment the word left her lips. “Anything to get the hell out of Connecticut as soon as possible.”

It was fairly odd, though not completely out of the ordinary, for the nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital to see someone running out the front door, trying to pull their clothes on around their medical gown.

It _was_ extremely rare, however, for the car waiting for that patient outside to be a police vehicle.

“Inspector....Inspector, wait!” Cried the nurse frantically chasing him down the hall as he attempted to adjust his belt. “Your observation period....!”

“Don’t need it,” Zenigata grunted, tearing away the blue smock and yanking his undershirt over his head.

“We need to check for symptoms of a concussion....”

“Not necessary.” Ignoring her protests, he stormed out through the automatic doors without even registering the immediate sting of the cold, his coat remaining tucked over his arm until he slipped into the passenger seat of the squad car.

“Where’re we heading next, Inspector?” The driver asked, attempting to pretend he wasn’t awkwardly watching him button up his shirt.

“Connecticut,” he barked, already halfway through tying his tie. It was the next obvious step - he’d had Fujiko tailed there, but things had gone quiet since she arrived. If he knew where Fujiko was, there was no chance Lupin didn’t know as well.

Zenigata could feel the familiar fire in his belly burning - the urge to keep the energy of a good chase stoked, before his leads all petered out and he was back to snooping around for tips as usual. Even more exciting was the image that had been burned into his mind before his car had spun out and he’d briefly lost consciousness - Jigen and Lupin, speeding away once again, but this time with a passed out woman in tow. Kidnapping, definitely. Maybe even reckless endangerment; new, more severe charges meant more manpower, and more manpower meant a better chance at finally pinning Lupin down.

But then, nagging at him amidst his glee, was the question of the car.

He knew it couldn’t have been Goemon driving - Goemon _might_ drive, sure, but if he’d wanted to run Zenigata off the road, he wouldn’t have waited quite so long. Goemon didn’t wait to take care of a problem he could immediately solve unless there was a reason, and in this case, that reason was seemingly nonexistent.

_“We’re kind of in a rush, so she’s better off at your place for the night!”_

No. Not like Goemon at all.

Zenigata kept replaying the moments before the crash as the squad car wove through the early morning rush hour, wondering what he’d missed while he was furiously sawing at the ropes around the young woman’s neck - and then, much to his own surprise, he found himself going back further, back into the armored van with Lupin; back to the curb where he’d picked him up; back to the homeless man with Lupin’s coat around his shoulders; to the trap he’d set for Lupin and Jigen in the penthouse they stole the egg out of, even as far as the hours of staking out before the break in.

He’d had eyes on everything every step of the way - except for that car.

And for the first time, during the kind of drive when his thoughts were usually occupied with triumphant daydreams of the moment when he locked Lupin up for good, all he wanted to know was when, along a timeline he had been certain he had locked down, he ought to have seen it coming.


	4. Two Dots and a Dash

“....And where do you work?”

“Assistant librarian.”

“How long?”

“About two years.”

“You go to school for that?”

“Nope. Piano.”

“Why not play professionally? Or teach?”

“Just because you’re good at playing piano doesn’t mean you’re good at teaching.”

“You ever play for anyone important?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“And you think you’d know if you did?”

“I mean, I hope someone would have told me.”

“What about your family? Anything interesting about them?”

“Uh, that’s none of your business - look, I’m willing to answer questions if you think that’s gonna help, but may I  _ please _ take at least one bite of this sandwich while it’s still warm?”

Everyone’s bellies were aching desperately, especially after their early morning run through the forest - Lupin had proposed a quick rest stop, and nobody had made a point to reply. They’d pulled into a little roadside spot with a great big sign on top reading “NORM’S DINER,” a tin can with a bar, a few booths, and one aisle stretching from end to end. A few truckers were scattered along the counter, all silently drinking their coffee and avoiding eye contact, but they cast a few irritable glances towards the booth where Lupin, Goemon, Jigen, and Dandy sat, all in considerably better spirits with full plates of food on the table.

Lupin shrugged in response to Dandy’s retort, happily cutting into his omelette; egg and kielbasa and a web of gooey cheese twirled around his fork masterfully, then swallowed with relish. Jigen, meanwhile, was slowly slicing off a piece of ribeye steak - Goemon had yet to touch his special, which he had not ordered for himself, but neither Jigen nor Lupin paid him much mind. They knew from experience that he would make a stubborn show of his disdain for the food, but soon as they stopped paying attention, it would be gone.

“So how long have you known that Fujiko was here?” Jigen asked, ripping the steak off his fork. If it hadn’t been obvious that Lupin had been using his interrogation of Dandy as a means to circumvent the inevitable discussion of Fujiko, it was once he spent ten solid seconds stammering under Jigen’s disapproving glare.

“She’s just cuddling up to some Ivy League professor,” he said. “Something about a coded inscription on the egg maybe leading to an old Russian safe.”

“Great. So we get the antitoxin, and she gets an Imperial egg and a safe full of treasure.”

“It almost sounds as though this venture was more lucrative for Fujiko than any of us.” Goemon’s brow raised, almost daring Lupin to reply - which he tried to, immediately, before being interrupted by Jigen.

“You know, Lupin, your business with Fujiko is your business and all that - ”

“C’mon, Jigen, I know I should’ve told you, but - ”

“ - and I like to think I’m a real understanding guy when it comes to whatever your thing is with her,” Jigen continued, “but if she’s getting more out of our jobs than we are, it’s time to cut her off unless she wants to start contributing for real.”

“She  _ does _ contribute!”

“By what, telling you where the egg is so you can go get it for her without her doing any of the work? I’m not saying she doesn’t do  _ anything _ , but I am saying she shouldn’t get our stuff without pulling her weight!”

“I didn’t figure there was a criminal honor system,” Dandy remarked, glancing between the two bemusedly. “You make it sound so bureaucratic.”

“It’s not about bureaucracy.” Jigen crammed a forkful of fried egg into his mouth, chewing aggressively. “It’s just common sense.”

“Something which Lupin lacks whenever Fujiko is involved.”

“Just ignore them. They don’t get how rewarding the love of a beautiful woman is.” Lupin said, grinning across the table towards Dandy in a way he thought was winsome, but Dandy appeared to be confused rather than impressed.

“What are you looking at me for? You think I’d have any idea what you’re talking about?”

“Well, maybe you just aren’t hanging around the right kind of guys. No sense of romance, you might say.”

Jigen snorted derisively. “What, like you’d know what that is?”

“I’ve hung around plenty. My point still stands.” Dandy sipped her coffee, a cool expression on her face. “If you want someone to back you up, I don’t think I’m your girl.”

“‘Cause no one’s come to prove you wrong.”

“‘Cause no one  _ will _ .”

“What makes you so sure?”

“I’m immune to that kind of thing,” she said, before taking another bite from her sandwich - for a moment, she struggled to tear the bacon apart with her teeth. “Never been in love.”

Lupin scoffed. “Alright, Little Miss Above It All; I’m willing to believe a lot, but  _ that _ sounds a bit too melodramatic for me.”

“What about it is impossible to believe? Some people just never do, it’s not that strange.”

Curiosity gave way to the sneer of the self-described casanova, much to the chagrin of Jigen and Goemon. “Oh? Is that a challenge?”

“No, it’s an extremely generous hint to  _ drop it _ .”

Jigen laughed - and across the table, between bites of his home fries, Goemon’s shoulders gently shook. “Don’t worry, you’re not missing out on much. Especially not with this clown.”

“You’re one to talk, Jigen.” Lupin folded his arms, brows furrowed angrily. “Considering you could make the Arctic seem warm and cuddly by comparison.”

“The Arctic’s quiet, dignified. Not at risk for any venereal diseases. More than I can say for you.”

“Hey, can you let me out? I’m gonna run to the bathroom real quick.” Dandy asked Jigen, who began to scoot out of the booth - but he hesitated as something occurred to him.

“Hang on. We’re not exactly out of the woods yet. Better have a buddy system for the time being.”

“Really?”

“Don’t you think that’s a little over the top, Jigen?”

“I agree,” Goemon added, looking perhaps the most indignant of the group despite his level tone. “I do not require personal protection.”

“Yeah, because you wouldn’t leave your damn sword behind even to take a leak. I’m talking about the rest of us. Hell, half of this group’s unarmed.”

“Sorry, I left my  _ gun _ in my other coat,” Dandy snarked - but Lupin, who was being fixed with what appeared to be a rather pointed look by Jigen, seemed a little more defensive. “What?”

Jigen turned away. “I’m not saying anything. You two wait here, I’m going with her.” He stood and let Dandy, who was still visibly baffled being escorted to the bathroom by a grown man, slide out of the booth and lead him across the restaurant.

Lupin watched them turn the corner, not realizing that he was cutting a too-large piece out of his omelette and unwittingly shoving it into his mouth - which was, of course, when Goemon chose to quietly ask him, “What are you thinking?”

He struggled for almost half a minute, his cheeks too full of egg to even properly chew. “I’ff jus’....’m wonrin....”

“Would you  _ please _ swallow your food before you respond?”

Anyone who hadn’t seen him cut into the omelette would have thought he’d swallowed a baseball, judging by the loud  _ gulp _ and the sharp gasp of relief that followed. “Sorry, but....I’m hung up on trying to figure out that woman.”

“I assume you mean how she has enough taste to know to steer clear of your advances.”

“Well, naturally.” He grabbed his coffee, trying to wash down the egg lodged in his throat. “It just seems weird to me how level-headed she’s acting. Don’t you think she ought to be a little more freaked out?”

Goemon glanced at Lupin out of the corner of his eye, slightly perplexed. “You say that as though it’s a bad thing.”

“But it’s odd, isn’t it? Wonder if there’s something she’s not telling us.”

“Such as?”

“The girl on that pin, for one thing,” said Lupin, pulling it out of his coat pocket and rubbing the ivory silhouette between his fingers.. “It’s too much of a coincidence that they’d just happen to look like one another, right? There’s just gotta be a connection.”

“It is unusual. Especially if it came to her by happenstance, as she claims.” Goemon took it from Lupin’s hand, raising it towards the light to get a clearer look. “But if this is some sort of conspiracy against her, I fail to see what good it would do to hide it.”

“She’s quite the stubborn lady - but then again, so is Fujiko. If anyone can crack this thing, it’s her; maybe they’ll cancel each other out.”

“Or they’ll join forces against us. One can never be too careful when Fujiko is involved, especially considering that Dandy isn’t exactly partial to you.”

“Oh, please. We just gotta figure out what her deal is - once it all falls into place, you’ll see.” Lupin took another too-large portion of his egg, shoving it into his mouth and promptly choking on it.

There are only so many ways to wait outside a restroom without looking creepy, and Jigen wasn’t managing any of them. Some of the truckers eating breakfast at the bar cast him suspicious glances as he followed her back, though he didn’t seem to particularly care - it wasn’t too long before Dandy came out, anyways.

“You all set?” She asked, though he had already stepped away from the spot where he’d been leaning on the wall.

Jigen shrugged. “Yeah, I’m fine for now. But you and I need to address something real quick, privately.”

“If it’s about this morning, I don’t regret running.” Dandy quickly replied, folding her arms.

“It’s not about that.” Jigen said, and his arms folded seemingly in reply. “And frankly, if we’re gonna keep driving around in the dark, I’d rather you know when it seems like a good time to run than not. But what I’m talking about is your neck.”

Her gaze softened, as though she had overlooked the events of the previous night. “Oh.”

“Be honest with me: how’s it feeling?”

“Fine, I guess,” and she rolled her head from side to side just to check. “A little sore.”

“You’re not just saying that?”

“No.”

“Because if you know it’s not okay, it’s your job to tell us so it doesn’t cause problems down the line.”

“Look, I’ve been feeling more or less alright for the past hour or so, but sure.” She shrugged. “And I appreciate the concern, but....this had to be private because?”

“‘Cause I know we don’t really trust each other yet, and I can already tell you’re not gonna say anything in front of  _ him _ .” and his head curtly jerked in the direction of the booth on the opposite end of the diner. “But at the risk of sounding like a real hypocrite, if you’re hurt, you swallow your pride and say something about it.”

“So not speaking from experience, I’m guessing?”

Jigen straightened his hat. “No, and I’m no more interested in giving him the satisfaction of knowing I need help than you are, but we’re already at a disadvantage with half our group unable to defend themselves.”

“Listen, I can take care of myself - ” Dandy replied, but Jigen raised a calloused hand before she could argue.

“That’s not up for debate. We don’t have the luxury of turning self-sufficiency into some kind of pissing contest right now. At this point, all I need you to do is survive. Can we agree on that?”

She observed him for a moment that seemed to go on forever: it was impossible for his eyes to betray him hidden beneath the brim of his hat. Eventually, she offered her own gloved hand, a look of respectful resignation on her face. “Fine.”

Jigen took her hand and shook it once, firmly. He wasn’t smiling - but he wasn’t scowling, either.

Inspector Zenigata couldn’t count how many times he’d had to explain to local and federal law enforcement officials what was glaringly obvious to him after years on the case: that the crime scene they were observing had been the work of Lupin and his gang. Often it was the smaller details they were neglecting: a speck of ash, an imprint left in the dust, the angle at which a door was left hanging ajar. 

Other times, it was a pile of cigarette butts on the dashboard of a mangled Cadillac and a felled tree sliced neatly in two - but in those instances, he found he had to do a little less work getting people convinced.

“They’ve found three sets of prints leading further into the forest,” an officer reported, despite Zenigata not even looking up from the spot he was examining on the side of the road. “We’re calling the local K9 unit to get a manhunt going.”

“Good call, but I’m not so sure they’re the ones on foot yet.” Zenigata murmured. “There were two cars here. One set of tire tracks lining up with the vehicle down there, and one leading back onto the road.” He indicated the nearly invisible trail of sludge turning off the curb.

“Think it’s connected to the vehicle involved in last night’s crash?”

“It would be a strange coincidence if it wasn’t.” Finally, he rose to face the officer, still lost in thought.

“So we’re currently missing one car and three drivers, then.” The officer replied, watching policemen fan out through the trees from atop the hill.

“All the more reason to assume that those footprints might not lead us to Lupin, now that we know Goemon’s with them for sure - unless they’re carrying the hostage, which would be odd, but not out of the question.”

“You don’t think there’s a chance we need to consider that - ?”

Zenigata shook his head; in fact, one might have assumed he was offended on Lupin’s behalf. “He’d rather charm the hostage than kill her. Murder’s not his style. Probably can’t say the same for whoever’s following them, though.”

He looked out over the scene of the crash, and tried to put the picture together in his head - but where usually it was effortless to visualize the sequence of events which had led to a stolen Vermeer or a ransacked gallery, he once again found himself fumbling over the presence of the second mysterious vehicle. There was no evidence that the car at the bottom of the hill had been driven off the road, as he had less than twelve hours before; it seemed that gravity had taken care of that. There were so many cavernous prints leading away from the highway that it was hard to get an idea of who had gone where, and when; there was no indication of what might have happened that would cause Goemon to pull out his Zantetsuken, which was always easier said than done; and there was no sign of any violence, which meant that any interpretation of the events which had occurred there would likely be purely speculative.

He’d had his share of difficult crime scenes, for sure, but the lingering frustration of trying to decipher the stray driver from the night before made it difficult for him to focus, especially as he felt himself struggling to put together one concrete theory he felt confident in.

“Inspector!” An officer marking out the tracks waved up to catch his attention. “We’ve got a bullet down here!”

Zenigata felt a gust of cold wind whip across his face as his train of thought derailed. “Any shrapnel? Blood?”

“No, it’s clean! Looks like it missed!”

“Come up and let me see it!”

The officer climbed the hill awkwardly, attempting to keep the bullet cupped gently in his palm while maneuvering his way to the top. Zenigata plucked it out of his palm and examined it closely, holding it between his fingers as he squinted aggressively into its shape. After a minute of silence, punctuated by the occasional “hmm,” he glanced back into the forest, the spark of having found something he didn’t know was missing in his eye. “Too small.”

“Too small?”

“Yep. Too small to have been fired from Jigen’s Magnum, and we took Lupin’s gun when we took his jacket from the homeless guy. The hostage is unarmed too, at least to the best of my knowledge. Someone was firing at them from the opposite direction: probably means they ran, took the car and left the other one.” His mind made up, Zenigata handed off the bullet and strode back towards his squad car, parked away from the multiple other police vehicles clotting the side of the highway.

“I want someone to stay back here to cooperate with the local authorities and report any updates on their search,” he shouted, throwing open the passenger’s side door so violently it just about  _ snapped _ off of its hinge. “The rest of us are going to New Haven, **now**.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys! Apologies that this one took a while and it wound up being fairly short, but fortunately, the next chapter is where things are going to start to get properly steamy.


	5. Out Of Her League

CASH ONLY.

The sign beside the register was written in loud red marker, underlined with thick lines which had been run over time and time again, so dark they still looked damp. Jigen rummaged through his wallet, the corner of his lip fixed downwards. On the other end of the lane, Goemon and Dandy waited awkwardly beside Lupin, who had been outfitted with a rather old suede car jacket which smelled as sad as it looked.

“This is humiliating.” Lupin whined, tugging uncomfortably at the jacket like a child in a horrifically itchy sweater.

Dandy shrugged. “At least it’s a coat.”

“Yeah, but it’s really not my style,” he replied. It wasn’t lost on him that her current impression of him was not the best - he prided himself on his finesse, but she had caught him at perhaps his clumsiest. The universe, it seemed, was bent on making it impossible to win her over, and more frustrating than his inability to get into a stubborn woman’s good graces was the realization of the extent it frustrated him to. He could simply write gaining Dandy’s respect, along with Dandy herself, off altogether - but the instinct to pursue something which would be a struggle to obtain made it near-impossible to put her out of mind, obnoxious as she was. “I mean, I can pull off just about any look, but this might be pushing it.”

“Does it fit?” Jigen asked as he approached them, though he didn’t sound as though he particularly cared what the answer was.

“Well, yeah, in a manner of speaking, but - ”

“And are you warm?”

“Sure, but anything was gonna be warmer than just a shirt - ”

“Then it’s fine.” Jigen grunted, pushing the door open and holding it for the others by his foot. “Unless you’ve changed your mind and decided to make a little money off of that egg?”

Lupin silently passed him, his nose upturned; with a scoff, Jigen let the door swing shut, following them back to the car. “Yeah. Didn’t think so.”

“I don’t know why you’re blaming me for not having a jacket anymore, Jigen,” said Lupin. “I’m sure we had a spare coat in _our_ car.”

“It is not my fault you didn’t check before the car crashed.” Goemon replied, in a tone which made it abundantly clear he had no interest in a debate.

“Or that you lost your last jacket in the first place.”

Murmuring irritably under his breath, Lupin turned the key and started the car with a _rumble_ so weighty it shook the interior entirely, turning out into the street. Traffic in New Haven was just starting to pick up: the roads were cramped with cars sitting nose to bumper, all trying to pull into the same places and make the same turns. As the sun rose over the city, the shadows hiding between the cracks of the walls and windowsills faded into pale lines of mortar, holding the stately stones aloft. Students strode across the crosswalk and between the narrow margins separating each vehicle, their scarves and jackets whipping angrily in the wind.

“No wonder Fujiko set up shop here,” Jigen said. “Probably trying to get her hooks in as many future sugar daddies as possible.”

“I thought you said she was here for a code?” Asked Dandy.

Jigen lit a fresh cigarette. “Sure she is. But being surrounded by a bunch of Wall Street wannabe trust fund babies probably doesn’t hurt, either.”

“ _Ah_.” She glanced out the window, watching a flock of young business majors turn the corner. “Well, if she wants to pick up a few numbers, I guess she couldn’t do much better than Yale. Most of these Ivy League guys are jackasses, anyways.”

“You gotta hand it to her,” Lupin said, with a dopey, lustful smile. “That woman’s got a real eye for money; not to mention hair, lips, chin, shoulders, br- ”

 _BEEP_. The driver behind them honked their horn angrily, jogging him out of his scandalous reverie: the light had turned green, and the cars ahead were already long gone. Waving back weakly, he made his turn away from the bustling town center, driving down the narrow roads until they reached a string of modest two story homes. It seemed as they parked on the curbside that students were filing out of every house in droves; some well dressed and manicured, others only as awake as was necessary to get themselves onto their feet and out the door.

“Huh.” Jigen sized up the house; it was as small and ordinary as the rest of the houses on the street, though, unlike the others, it seemed to have received a fresh coat of paint before the snow hit. “Pretty thrifty for Fujiko.”

“I assume this must be the professor’s residence.” Goemon added, stepping out of the car. A group of college girls jogging by in colorful windbreakers stumbled over one another's' feet, staring at him as they passed.

“It’s not bad for a big college town,” said Dandy, walking around the hood of the car to the street. “Nicer than my apartment, at least.”

As they walked up to the front porch, Lupin noticed the car parked beside the house, a shiny orange BMW. “You think he’s home?”

“Don’t know.” Jigen shrugged, but he gave the street a cautious sweep anyways.

Unable to stifle the grin curling across his face, Lupin rhythmically rapped his knuckles against the front door, pulling the Imperial egg out from his jacket. “Knock, knock!” He sang out, giggling under his breath.

The door swung open, and standing inside waiting for them was a woman who might have been sculpted alongside Galatea; long limbs, glittering eyes, thick, shiny hair alight with the red of an autumn horizon, all wrapped up in a fitted knit sweater and high waisted pants. Her soft, plush smirk split into a giddy smile as her gaze fell on the robin’s blue egg in Lupin’s hand.

“Oh, _Lupin!_ ” She gushed, and grabbed for the treasure with hands as quick as a whip, but Lupin held it out of reach above her head, gleefully toying with her as she continued to grasp at it. Without skipping a beat, she kissed him on the cheek, and he melted where he stood on the porch - she seized the opportunity to snatch the egg from his grasp, turning it over and admiring it. “I can’t believe it….it’s in perfect condition!”

“Yeah, hello to you too.” Jigen snorted, blowing smoke with a noisy “ _hmph_.”

Fujiko’s gaze snapped to Jigen, putting on a sugary facade of gratitude. “ _Hello_ , Jigen. Thanks for helping him grab it for me.”

“Don’t mention it.” There was a brief, silent moment where most of the people standing on the porch expected him to follow his statement with “seriously, _don’t_ ,” but instead he opted to take another puff of his cigarette. “Can we come inside, or is your boyfriend home?” He said, nodding towards the BMW.

“What? Oh, he left for class an hour ago; he bikes to work. Come on in.” She pushed the door open, leading them into the front hall. As they entered, they saw that the interior was far less modest than the exterior of the house would imply; there seemed to be shelves of encyclopedias and framed, yellowing grids of deciphered codes on every wall, piles of journals and cast off pencils strewn across tables and desks. Lupin seized the opportunity to tear away the ugly suede jacket and throw it onto the coat rack, which had its share of parkas and overcoats hanging off one on top of the other.

Fujiko strutted into the living room, still glowingly examining the egg; Lupin peered over her shoulder as she sat down on the couch, sitting beside her and watching her outline the small symbols etched along the gleaming clasp with her fingers. “So, lost Russian treasure, huh?”

“Don’t get greedy, Lupin.” She teased - at the opposite end of the room, Goemon coughed pointedly. “I’ve been tracking down this safe for months on my own. It’s only right I should take the lion’s share.”

“But you couldn’t get the egg on your own, too?” Jigen said.

She quickly fixed Jigen with an irritable look. “I told Gene it was a family heirloom. I couldn’t risk him finding out it was stolen. And put that cigarette out, this whole house is practically a fire hazard.”

“So where exactly does _Gene_ think it’s coming from?”

“Well, it just so happens that my _brother’s_ in town, and I asked him to bring it along.” Fujiko smiled, looking quite like the cat that ate the canary as Jigen resumed stewing with Goemon in the corner. When Jigen turned away, however, Fujiko seemed to finally notice Dandy: “So, who’s your new friend?”

Lupin opened his mouth to introduce their new acquaintance, but to his surprise, saw that a strange affliction had come over Dandy; the blood in her face was surging angrily to her cheeks as though she had been slapped. She had been intently fixing her gaze on the carpeting, but realized much to her apparent horror that, as the conversation died out, she had become the center of attention.

“Oh, so _that’s_ what that was all about at the diner!” Lupin yelled, jumping to his feet and . “All that ‘never gonna meet a guy who’ll prove you wrong’ stuff - you’re not even _into_ guys, are you? You were just messing with me!”

At last, Dandy managed to snap out of her flustered stupor, staring at Lupin as though he had sprouted a second head. “What the hell are you _talking_ about? I’m still into guys, I’m just not into you!”

Jigen couldn’t contain his laughter, and it very nearly broke Goemon, too. “You seriously jumped straight to ‘she’s not into guys’ just ‘cause she thinks you’re a jerk?!”

“Hey, it’s a reasonable conclusion!” Lupin retorted, his own face now redder than Dandy’s as he rounded on Jigen. Behind him, just out of view, Fujiko failed to stifle a snicker.

“Reasonable conclusion? _You’re_ bisexual, you _dumbass!_ ”

“So are you! And you honestly didn’t even suspect she might not swing both ways?”

“I suspected she was trying to get you to shut the hell up, and _I_ was right!”

As Lupin waged a losing war against Jigen, who continued to laugh in his face - which, of course, only angered Lupin more - Fujiko stood and extended a hand to Dandy, who momentarily forgot what she was meant to do in response. “Fujiko Mine. Charmed.”

“Uh....Dandy Abernathy. Sorry if I’m intruding.”

“Not at all. How’d you get caught up with these goofballs?”

Lupin’s head whipped back towards Fujiko, incredulous, but neither Fujiko nor Dandy paid him any mind. “I think that’s what they were gonna ask you, actually. I’m kind of skeptical about the whole thing.”

“What, are you just grabbing random girls off the street now?” Fujiko asked Lupin. “I didn’t think you’d resort to something so ghoulish.”

“Hang on a sec, this isn’t my fault!”

“Hmph. So he says.”

“It’s not! If you wanna blame anyone, blame Pops!” He shouted, eye visibly twitching at the sound of Fujiko’s derisive scoff. “He’s the one who lumped us in together, not me!”

It was the rare occasion that Jigen and Fujiko were laughing for the same reason - but behind Lupin, Jigen was snickering too. “Sure, _Pops_ did this. Don’t suppose you want to tell Fujiko _how_ Pops factors in, huh?”

“The _point_ is, this is all a coincidence that’s gone wildly out of control, and I’m ready to bet it’s got something to do with her.” Lupin pointed accusatorily at Dandy, whose lip curled in response. “Now we’ve got armed wackos chasing us up and down the east coast, and I wanna know why.”

“Well, it’s not because of this,” said Fujiko, holding up the egg. “There was so little security on this thing, they might as well have been giving it away.”

“That’s what I thought!”

“Have you noticed anything unusual during your time here, Fujiko?” Goemon asked.

“Nothing out of the ordinary. Guessing that means you haven’t either?”

“Up until yesterday, no.” Said Jigen, taking a puff from his cigarette. “After the two of them got arrested was when they started tailing us.”

“Hm.” Fujiko’s finger curled around her chin, lip pouted in deep thought. “There’s really no other clue why you’re being followed?”

Lupin shook his head - and then, remembering the cameo pin in his pocket, extended it to Fujiko with a gentlemanly flourish. “How about this?”

Gently, Fujiko examined the silhouette, rubbing her thumb over the detailing. “There _is_ something about it I can’t put my finger on, but I’m not really sure; where did you find it?”

“I bought this coat last night on the way home from work,” said Dandy. “The lady at the register just stuck it on the lapel.”

“Hm.” Fujiko’s gears were visibly turning, and at this the men paid close attention: when you couldn’t tell that she was thinking was when Fujiko was at her most conniving, but something bringing her to a standstill and forcing her to focus was both a rare and intriguing occurrence. At the end of that silent moment, however, was only a frustrated sigh as she threw up her hands, no more sure of the significance of the pin than when Lupin offered it to her. “I don’t know. I just can’t place it.”

“But you _do_ recognize it?” Jigen asked.

“I recognize _something_.” She said. “Almost like I saw it recently.”

Goemon’s eyes opened. “In person?”

“No, I’d definitely know if I had - ” And finally, as she set the pin down on the table besides piles of manuscripts, it came to her; she _slapped_ her hands together in time with the spark of an idea rushing into her head, startling the rest of the room. “The newspaper archive! At the campus library!”

“Wait, you saw this in the _paper_?” Said Lupin, reexamining the pin as though it had acquired some unknown new value.

“Either the girl or the pin, I’m not sure which. But I definitely saw it in the _Courant_ a month or two ago - I just can’t remember what _for_.”

“So you’ll help us find it?”

“Sure - I can’t pretend I’m not a teensy bit interested in what you three have gotten yourselves into.” Fujiko winked as she rose from the couch, turning into the kitchen. “Anyone want some coffee before we go?”

“Hard pass,” replied Jigen curtly, walking back into the front hall and yanking his coat off the hanger. “We gotta do this quick and start figuring out where we’re going next before Pops shows up - or worse.”

“All right, then, but we’re going to have to ride in separate cars. I can’t fit everyone in mine.”

Lupin’s hand shot up eagerly; his grin spread from ear to ear. “I call shotgun with Fujiko!”

“You can have it. I will ride with Jigen.” As Goemon followed Jigen to the door, he spoke to Dandy without even turning his head to look at her. “I suggest you come with us to spare yourself more of this shameless display.”

“ _Shameless?_ ” Though Lupin protested, he made no effort to persuade Dandy otherwise - and after looking between the two pairs, she wavered towards the men waiting beside the door.

“Yeah, I’ll ride with these guys,” she said, smiling apologetically. “Let you two catch up on the way.”

“Sure thing. We’ll see you there.” Fujiko didn’t seem at all offended, and this came as a visible relief to Dandy, who followed Jigen and Goemon out of the house.

“You think they’ll actually follow us?” Goemon asked Jigen under his breath as they walked across the lawn.

“Who knows?” Jigen murmured, lighting a fresh cigarette. “Hopefully, they’ll take the hint and get it all out of their system before they meet us at the library.”

The two parties would not reunite for another three hours. 

At that time, they would find themselves set upon by vehicles chasing them down the streets of New Haven, a nearly impassable police blockade, and one of their number incapacitated by a pair of inconveniently placed handcuffs.

This is what they managed to learn before being forced to make their escape.

“In the _Courant_ , in the _Courant…_ ” Jigen grumbled, noisily flipping page after page in a stream of faded ink. “Couldn’t specify which section, could she?”

“Well, we can probably rule out sports and crosswords, though we should probably skim over those anyways just to be safe.” Dandy stared vacantly at the sheen of plastic sleeves moving up and down, her cheek resting against her fist.

“Don’t you think we should wait until Lupin and Fujiko arrive with the pin?” Goemon asked, legs crossed on the seat of his chair.

Jigen shook his head, reaching under his hat to scratch his scalp. “Nah, I wanna keep this moving. The sooner we get back on the road, the better.”

“But we have no idea what we’re looking for. This research could be completely useless.”

“Well, we’ll know once we get to it, won’t we? It’s the closest damn thing to a lead we’ve got - unless there’s anything else _you_ want to add.”

Dandy sighed. “If there _was_ anything else, I swear I’d have told you. No reason to keep dragging it all out.”

“That is, unless there is something you’re hiding from us.” Goemon’s eyes turned, unblinking, onto Dandy - and she found herself vividly recalling an old professor whose office sat at the end of a hallway of practice rooms, who would peer in at her suspiciously whenever he walked past, as though she were callously neglecting Vivaldi by playing a few bars of Gershwin.

“I’m _not!_ ” She looked between Goemon and Jigen - whose hat was cocked in her direction, his hand hovering over the next page - incredulously, just about out of patience. “I don’t know what kind of impression you guys are getting of me, but if it’s ‘criminal mastermind,’ you’re _terrible_ at your jobs.”

Goemon grimaced. “It is necessary to be wary of that which you do not understand, especially during matters concerning life and death.”

“Besides the melodrama, he’s got a point. If we’re gonna figure out what’s going on here, we can’t rule out any possibility.” Jigen added, finally looking up from the newspaper. He sounded a little guilty having to say it, but it was the assessment of someone who knew it was true. “It’s not personal, it’s just what you’ve gotta do in situations like these.”

For a moment, Dandy struggled to find a retort, her lips stretching and pursing as they attempted to land on the right words - but eventually she gave up, settling for folding her arms with a sigh. “You know what, sure. I’m in no position to argue otherwise.”

“No?”

“Not really. I guess if you removed potentially getting murdered from the situation, I’d be largely the same.”

“Hm.” Jigen’s gaze hung on her for a moment before returning to the paper, flipping through the archive absently once more.

They sat there in silence for just under an hour listening to laminated pages slapping atop each other one by one in the quiet of the library, occasionally noticing the wandering eyes of passing study groups hanging on them before returning to the chore at hand. It was like trying to read a book underwater, drifting through words with no engagement nor meaningful sense of the passage of time. They went through a month with no success; when Dandy returned with the archive of the next month back, dropping it on the table with an audible, floppy thud, neither Jigen nor Goemon could hide their groans behind pursed lips.

Yet after going through another week’s worth of _Hartford Courant_ s, they were all jogged awake by Goemon dropping the hilt of his sword on an open page: a photograph of an active crime scene. “There.”

Neither Dandy nor Jigen had expected Goemon to be the one to spot it, but as they leaned in closer to look at the picture, there it was, a blot at the end of his hilt: the same little stick pin, with the outline of the same little girl carved in ivory.

“ _That’s_ what Fujiko saw?” Jigen asked incredulously. “She’s got a hell of an eye for detail.”

“Mavis Bell,” said Dandy, reading the name in the article below, “‘ - landlady reported her missing after discovering her belongings abandoned beside the entrance of her Brooklyn apartment.’” Beneath the photo of the pin was a picture of a young woman a year or two older than Dandy, with curly hair and thick glasses.

“Well, we can cross out kidnapping for ransom; says here she worked at a diner full time,” Jigen said, underlining the passage with his finger. “Wouldn’t have explained why they went after us, either.”

“Nor does she resemble the girl on the pin,” added Goemon.

“Think it’s some kind of tag so they know who to pick up?”

“Outside of the fact that we’re both women, I don’t really see a connection, though.” Dandy added, tapping her finger along the edge of the table. “We’re in two completely different cities; we don’t even look very much alike.”

“And she went missing two months ago, which means there could have been any number of unreported victims between then and now.”

“You think we should check the other papers?” Dandy asked, the spark of an idea in her eyes. “Maybe there’s more the _Courant_ missed.”

Jigen and Goemon shared a look between one another, silently debating the proposal. “While it’s in our best interest to continue onward as soon as we can, we cannot leave until Lupin arrives,” Goemon finally said, rising from his seat and picking up his sword. “It would seem that more research is all we can do for the time being.”

  
  


“And that’s really all she had to tell you about herself?”

“It’s odd, isn’t it? It felt like there was something she didn’t want to talk about - like something that would have made it all make sense, right?” Lupin watched out the window as they pulled up beside the university library; a large, old cathedral-like building which he found himself casing on instinct, even though he was about to simply walk through the front door and skim through a few archives like any of the countless college students weaving in and out of the entrance. Fujiko’s BMW came to a stop along the curb, gleaming in the sun between old cars covered in faded paint and water spots. “Her answer to almost everything I asked was just too ordinary.”

“Hm.” Fujiko took the cameo pin out of its place in her cup holder, turning it over in her hand once more, tracing the girl’s silhouette. “You know....it might be a stretch, but I think I have a hunch about where I’ve seen her before.”

“No kidding?”

“I mean, Jigen and Goemon are probably already skimming through the archives without us - what’ll it hurt if we do a little research of our own first?”

Lupin’s eyes just about glazed over. “I’m more than happy to spend study hall with you, Fujiko.”

“Don’t get too excited. It really might be a long shot.” She smirked knowingly, stepping out of the car into the street.

“C’mon, you of all people should know ‘long shot’ is my middle name.” He sprang out of the passenger’s seat, following her into the great cathedral, glancing curiously at the librarian waving at Fujiko from the front desk as they passed. “Made a few friends, huh?”

“Told her I was writing a research paper on the Romanovs. She was checking books in and out for me about twice a week.”

“Man, you’re really going all in on this safe, aren’t you? Did you suck every rich idiot in New England dry already?”

“You and I both know sucking rich idiots dry is fun, but it’s easy work for such a little prize. _This_ would be an incredible find.”

“Don’t suppose I could get a little cut, huh? Just to tide the guys over?” He rubbed the back of his neck in a show of mock sheepishness, though the glint in his eyes clearly hoped she’d throw him a ruby or two.

Fujiko heard his silent question, and chuckled softly to herself, but ignored him and looked ahead to the directory. “I think it’ll be business - if not, maybe criminology.”

“That’s basically the same section.”

“You know, shockingly, I _wasn’t_ thinking of corporate espionage, but that might not be too far off.” She said, turning towards the appropriate wing of the library. 

“What kind of a theory are we talking, here?” Lupin couldn’t help but admire the architecture of the library as they traveled further in: it was the kind of stately interior he enjoyed being chased out of, with mezzanines and great open spaces to take advantage of as he pleased amidst rows upon rows of priceless old books.

Another time, maybe.

“I spent a few weeks in New York playing around with some corporate hot shots - nothing too exciting - but I remembered someone mentioning she was going to see Tennessee Booker speak at some big business summit.”

“Oh?” Lupin was curious, but still easily distracted by Fujiko’s frame as she found the shelf she was looking for, reaching up with a slender arm. “What’s so, uh.... _hehe_....interesting about that?”

Fujiko tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, fingers tracing the spines of books of all ages and sizes - Lupin felt his own spine tingle riotously, as though it would collapse from under him. “Tennessee Booker’s a complete recluse,” she said, plucking a green hardcover book with very little wear off the shelf, skimming over the table of contents; the title on the spine read _The Intersection: An Examination of Tragedy and Business._ “He stopped making public appearances around a decade ago, around the time....there.”

She had flipped open to a chapter titled “Tainting the Interpersonal Relationship: The Booker Disappearance.” “Lucia Booker,” read Fujiko. “Tennessee Booker’s only family. She vanished when she was ten.”

“Mother?”

“Booker never married; Lucia was adopted. Apparently she was more of a public figure than her father ever was - people thought she was being groomed to take over the company.”

“Really? What’s his business?”

“He makes toys,” she said, skimming further along to the small index of color photographs. “I guess it was probably better publicity to have a little girl as the face of the company - a prodigy, too.”

“Could she have died?” Lupin mused, watching Fujiko turn page after page.

“There was never a grave or a body,” she said, finally coming to the thick insert of white pages. “And no investigation ever turned anything up. Nobody at the company ever said a word about it, which probably just made people wonder more.”

At last, they saw it: a color photo of a young, pretty girl beaming on a stage, clean and well-dressed. Lupin took the pin from Fujiko’s pocket and held it up beside her face - the curve of her lips, the gentle bob of her hair, the pronounced eyebrows all matched the image of Lucia Booker perfectly, down to the lace on the collar.

“1966 - she looks about nine years old there. This must have been just before she disappeared.” Lupin took in all the details of her face, slowly parsing them over in his mind. “I guess she’d be in her twenties now.”

Fujiko’s brow furrowed. “You know, I thought once I found a picture of her I’d be able to tell if they were the same girl - but I’m not really sure anymore. Maybe the pin looking like Dandy’s a coincidence after all.”

Lupin didn’t seem to hear her, however: his gaze was caught by something sitting on the side of Lucia’s photo, something which was out of focus and obscured partially by darkness, but easily recognizable to anyone looking for the right details.

A piano.


End file.
